For greatest understanding of this story you should read the entire series.
Hurricane - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1B Summer Camp - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1C First Love part 1 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1D First Love part 2 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1E First Love part 3 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1F First Love part 4 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1G First Love part 5 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1H First Love part 6 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1I First Love part 7 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1J First Love pt 8 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1K
By KenJ <ken.janney@kjanney.com>
This version is rated PG-13
This has not been beta’d
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros., except those I created. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
/ denotes telepathic communications./
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Saturday, September 3, 2039
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It was Saturday and the Labor Day weekend was upon them. Everyone in the Kent clan packed up their families. All of the women were bringing dishes to share with the rest of the family. Clark had the Bar-B-Que pit fired up and was getting a head start on the grilling since this would be a rather large gathering. The back yard of the Wisteria Lane house had been decorated. In one section some pools of various depths had been put up for the children along with some lawn games. A number of tables had been set up for serving and eating.
All except for Lara and Mike all of the families started arriving at around noon. Since Lara and Mike lived in LA they used the same trick that Lois and Clark had used when their children had been small. After the younger children were asleep they moved them by super express to Metropolis. The children woke up in their rooms in the Wisteria Lane home and thought nothing of it.
Cold dishes were placed into the refrigerator until it was time to start eating. The grandchildren all mobbed Grandpa Clark and Grandma Lois as soon as they arrived to say hi, before going over to the play area.
As families arrived groups would gather and start talking.
It always amazed Clark that even though he could recognize everyone’s heartbeat, he could still pick Lois’ heartbeat out of the crowd and know exactly where she was and her emotional state. Today he could tell that she was immensely happy. She really enjoyed having the kids and the grandkids around. Pretty soon they might even have the next generation showing up. Lara and Mike’s eldest daughter, Louise, was going to be fourteen soon. It just seemed like the years were flying by.
It seemed like the kids were all taking turns spending a few minutes with Clark, one on one as the party progressed.
This had been some party! So far they had had an announcement of a baby on the way from Jimmy and Peg along with their anniversary celebration. There had also been the arrival of a delegation of the council of Elders from New Krypton who had come to officiate at a life bonding ceremony for Sam and Alice, followed by an American civil wedding ceremony.
Clark had just had a conversation with Trey who had gone off to sample the foods that were on the buffet. The conversation with Trey would require some additional thought before he actually answered the questions he had asked.
Just then Jon, Lois and Clark’s oldest walked up. “Hi Pop, how ya holdin up? I saw you in conference with Trey and decided not to interrupt.”
A sudden thought came to Clark and he said, “You know, you are just the person I needed to see. I need to ask you to do me a favor. The conference I just had with Trey was about Earth customs. I’d like you to tell him about your relationship with Jen. They have been locked in to tradition and arranging marriages for their children, but, after what happened with me and your mom and between me and Zara and more recently with Sam and Alice, they are thinking of changing things.”
“Sure Pop, I’d be happy to. From what you’ve told us about what happened, I’ve always been glad we didn’t do that kind of thing.”
Jon went off in search of Trey. When he found him he was sitting with a couple of the other elders enjoying sampling some of the foods that had been prepared by the members of the family. He asked, “May I join you?”
Trey sat down his plate and said, “Yes, you may. I have been looking forward to speaking with some of Lord Kal-El’s children. Which one are you?”
“I’m Jon, uh, Kam-El, the eldest son.”
“Ahh yes, the scientist.”
“Yes, I am a scientist, however, that’s not what I came to talk about. My father, Lord Kal-El, said that you wanted to know more about Earth customs regarding Marriage and pair bonding.”
Trey expressed his interest by saying, “Yes, we are very interested. It would appear as though the Earth custom of allowing individuals to find their own life mates is a hit and miss proposition. At times it works out as evidence by your family.”
Jon asked, “Have you ever given it a try?”
“The first time we had any problems with our system was with your father and Lady Zara. They were both rather strong willed individuals and even though they were life partners from birth they chose to abandon custom and go their own way. I have to admit, in both cases they appear to be happy in their current pair bonds.”
“My father and mother found out that there is a reason for their happiness. No matter what arrangements were made when they were born, they were fated to be together. Let me tell you a story.”
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“It was July of 2024. I had just graduated from MetU with a Bachelors degree in Chemistry. I had worked hard and had completed my degree in three years instead of the normal four. I was planning to continue on for advanced degrees and was taking the summer off. It was the Fourth of July Holiday.”
“Oh, that’s right, you don’t have any frame of reference for that. Please allow me to explain. Originally our country was a colony of another nation, the same way New Krypton would have been a colony of Krypton if it had continued to exist. There came a time when the colonists felt that the absentee government was abusing its power and requiring monetary remuneration for services that they were in fact not receiving and they felt that they should have a voice in their government. When the parent country refused to lessen the burden a rebellion ensued. I might liken it to what happened with Nor. He tried to userp the rightful ruler’s authority which caused a civil war. In that case it was solved by my father engaging Nor in single combat. That didn’t happen here. This country announced its intention of throwing off the yoke of the parent country which led to a war. We celebrate the day that this declaration was signed as the day a new nation was born. That occurs annually on the fourth day of our month of July.”
“Okay, so, it was the Fourth of July Holiday and our family had taken a vacation and gone to visit my grandparents, that is the Earth couple that had raised my dad as their own son. You remember Smallville, don’t you?”
“Ah, yes, we were there briefly when Lord Not captured it.”
“Right, I remember Dad telling us the story. Anyhow, we were in Smallville for the holiday and we chose to go to Smallville Lake for the day. We all participated in a number of sporting and athletic activities.”
“One thing that all of the Kent women have in common is their feminine form. They are all at the top when it comes to ranking feminine beauty and if they had all entered the contest for the Corn Queen, it would have been a four way tie. I guess I need to explain that. There is a local celebration held in Smallville on an annual basis, the Corn Festival. It is a celebration of the harvest of the major crop produced in that area of the country. As part of that they have a beauty contest where women vie for the title of Corn Queen. Anyhow, the point is that all of my sisters are so beautiful that they would have all been chosen over the other contestants and would have had to share the honor.” Jon started laughing as he continued, “That was one of the problems that Dad had, they all knew just how beautiful they were and they all enjoyed showing off their beauty so when they were on the beach, only the skimpiest swim suits would do. Dad was scandalized, but, there wasn’t a whole lot her could do because Mom joined in with them by wearing a bikini every bit as skimpy as her daughters. At that time, Sam was thirteen and Lucy, my youngest sister was fourteen going on twenty-one. Us guys were almost as bad. We weren’t vain but we knew that thanks to our Kryptonian physiology we had bodies like extreme athletes, so we also wore as little as possible at the beach. I was twenty-four at the time.”
“Anyhow, that was on Friday, July fifth that we were at the lake. The girls were playing two-on-two beach volleyball to a crowd of male admirers and among them was the life guard.”
''I wasn’t paying particular attention to the girls; after all, they are my sisters. I happened to glance out over the water to the float and was attracted to a girl that had just swum out. As she climbed up the ladder I used his telescopic vision to get a good look at her. My breath was taken away at the sight of her. She was wearing a black bikini top which barely covered the essentials and extremely brief red bikini bottoms with a yellow band, almost like a belt as the top strap. I marveled at the fact that her bikini was a match for my uniform and was mesmerized by her and I just stood there frozen as I watched her. She was a vision of beauty! She was the only girl there that could rival my sisters in the beauty department. Her beauty was in stark contrast to my sisters though; all of my sisters have dark hair that they inherited from our parents. This girl was a platinum blond and she had a knockout figure which was amply displayed by the extremely brief bikini.”
“I watched as she crossed the float and climbed up on the diving board and walking out to the end gave a couple of experimental bounces before returning to the float end of the board. She did her approach and bounced on the end of the board, went into a short arc and hit the water cleanly.”
“I watched for her to surface and when approximately fifteen seconds had elapsed I started to worry. Thinking that there could be a problem I took off at a run and had a hard time restraining myself and maintaining a normal human speed as I crossed the beach to the water. I hit the water in a shallow dive and stayed underwater and started to fly, cleaving the water like a torpedo. I arrived in the vicinity of the float within seconds and started using my enhanced vision to locate her. I spotted her tangled in some submerged debris which had been washed into the lake from a storm the previous month. She was unconscious as I freed her from the debris and brought her to the surface. “
“As soon as I had her head above water I started administering mouth to mouth resuscitation. As I did so, when my lips came into contact with hers I felt something akin to an electric shock pass between us. It startled me but didn’t keep me from doing what needed to be done. I gave her a couple of breaths and then started to move her back to shore. When we got into shallow water I picked her up and carried her to the beach where I continued to administer life saving measures, talking to her as I did, ‘Come on, breathe. Come on, I know you can do it, breathe. Come on and breathe.’”
“Suddenly she started coughing and spitting up water. I lifted her up and pulled her into my chest in an embrace. As she started to come to, her left arm came up and around my neck and her right arm came up under my left and across my back.”
“After a couple of minutes she realized the position she was in and pulled back to look me in the face. I asked, ‘Are you okay now?’”
“She asked, ‘What happened? All I remember is I dove off the board and suddenly I was caught.’”
“I replied, ‘I was watching and when you didn’t come back up I swam out to find you. Once I had you free I brought you back to shore. I’m Jon, by the way, Jon Kent.’”
“She said, ‘Hi Jon Kent, Jen, Jennifer Jenkins, pleased to meet you. You’ll never know just how pleased.’ She looked at the way I was holding her and relaxed in my arms. She used her arm around my neck to pull me down and she kissed me. When she released the kiss she said, ‘Thanks, Jon Kent. You saved my life.’ I have to tell you, when her lips touched mine she felt the same electric like jolt that I had felt when I was doing the mouth to mouth and it surprised her as much as it had surprised me. It was unlike anything she had experienced before.”
“I picked her up and carried her over to my towel and laid her on it before sitting down next to her. Before I was able to get settled she noticed a very prominent bulge in the front of my Speedos. There was a very good reason for that. There was an immediate sexual attraction. That tingle that we had felt was the soul mates connection. The way Mom and Dad explain it when you find the person that is fated to be your life partner your souls recognize each other and that tingle is evidence of it.”
“Well, she propped herself up on her elbows and we talked. We talked and talked and talked some more. Neither of us was inclined to do anything that would break the rapport that we had established. I found out that Jen was a second cousin to Lana Lang, an old acquaintance of my Dad, and that she was eighteen. The single item that I discovered that made me happiest was the fact that she didn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Before the end of the day I had her contact information and asked, ‘Would you like to go to the movies? They are doing a ‘Back to the Future’ marathon at the Talon. All three movies, back to back.’”
“Jen said, ‘Only if you promise to buy me popcorn.’
“Of course I said I would. In fact I offered to buy the biggest tub they had as long as we could share.”
“She laughed and said, ‘You’re on. We’ll share.’”
“Before the end of the vacation we had spent the majority of our time together.”
“Mom and Dad had seen what was going on and had allowed things to happen naturally. Dad knew just what I was going through and he and Mom had asked if they could have a talk with me.”
“They asked me if I thought she was the one. I was sure that she was and I told them so. You see, this was a chance meeting, but, that is the way it usually happens. I don’t know how it is on New Krypton, but, a Kryptonian here on Earth knows immediately when they meet the one who is their soul mate, even without touching. Dad said that as soon as Mom walked into the office where he was being interviewed he knew she was the one. Well, that’s just how it happened with me. As soon as I saw her on that float I knew that she was the one.”
“We decided that I really needed to be certain about our relationship before bringing her in on the family secret. She was just going to be starting college in the Elementary Education program at Midwestern.”
“After the family went back to Metropolis I stayed in Smallville and lived with grandma and grandpa Kent so that I could continue to date Jen. I also applied to Midwestern for their post graduate program and was accepted. I also applied for adjunct professor status in the Chemistry program and was accepted. It wouldn’t pay a lot, but, it would pay for an apartment and dates.”
“Jen knew there was an attraction there just as I did, but, that didn’t keep other guys from trying to make time with her. I have to admit, I didn’t like it when she went out with other guys. Doubly so when she told me that this individual or that one couldn’t keep his hands to himself. If I had seen that I might have broken his hands for him. The one good thing that came of all that was that Jen could contrast them with me and it wasn’t too long before she stopped allowing anyone else to get close. By the end of her freshmen year we had an understanding. We became engaged that summer.”
“Later that summer tragedy struck. Jen’s parents were killed when their brakes failed as they were negotiating a turn on a highway and they went off the road into a tree.”
“Jen was really broken up, but I was there as much as possible to support her. There for a while she didn’t want anything to do with me. She blamed my family for failing to rescue her parents. It was unrealistic but it put a wedge between us for a year. I kept in touch and would talk with her at every opportunity. Eventually, she came to the realization that her anger was unfounded. I mean, there is no way we can be everywhere and on the scene for every accident in the world. We had to restart our relationship and it took until she was ready to graduate for us to be at the point that she was ready for us to marry. That was in 2028, eleven years ago. We had our first child, Bernard, in 2031.”
As Jon was finishing up his narrative, Trey was obviously mulling over the story and its ramifications. He said, “I can see that this system has obviously worked out for the El family here on Earth. I guess you could also say that it has worked out for Lady Zara and Ching-Ka. They also are happy in their match. You have given us much information to consider.”
Jon said, “Each of us, when we have found our life mates it has been love at first sight and in each case our mate is truly our first love. If you have any further questions you can talk to any of my brothers or sisters. I’m sure they would all be willing to tell you their stories.”
“Thank you for your time Kam-El. We will give your story consideration as we try to decide if we will discontinue the birth marriage custom.”
Just then Jennifer walked up with six month old George in a carrier. Jon said, “Lord Trey, I’d like to introduce you to my life mate, my wife, my first Love, Jenifer and this is little George.”
Trey stood and bowed to Jen saying, “It is a pleasure to meet the life mate of Lord Kal-El’s oldest son and,” he reached out and caressed George’s head, “the grandson of Lord Kal-El and Lady Lois. May he grow to be as wise as his parents and grandparents. Please accept the blessing of the Council of Elders.”
Jen smiled and said, “Thank you, Lord Trey. It is an honor to meet you.” Just then George started to fuss and Jen said, “If you’ll excuse me, the little lord is hungry.”
With a bright smile Jon said, “I’ll come with you. Lord Trey, please excuse us, duty calls.”
With a smile Trey said, “Of course. I do hope we can talk more, later.”
“I’ll make time, later.”
Trey replied, “Thank you,” as Jon and Jen turned to leave.
comments go here The End
First Love part 9 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1L
